You can turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Definitely a fitting place in the Scriptures to go to as we look forward to observing the Lord's Supper where we recognize, where we remember, where we celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ's body broken for us and his blood shed for us. One old British Baptist preacher once said, marking or commenting on the Jewish unbelieving rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
They said, the Jews could not endure, he said, the Jews could not endure a crucified Messiah. He would go on to say that multitudinous ceremonies and diverse washings and sacrifices were these all to be put away and nothing left but a bleeding Savior. We as Christians in our era say yes. We as Christians and Christians throughout every era say yes.
All that is left is a bleeding Savior. That theological principle and that glorious reality that Jesus Christ is the only treasure in our treasury of merit is to be proclaimed by Christians everywhere. Jesus paid it all. all to Him I owe." And we come to Isaiah 53, and we find Scripture written to round up 700 years prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that speaks with great clarity concerning His crucifixion. We could say, in fact, that the clarity of The theological meaning behind Christ's saving cross work in Isaiah 53 is just as clear as any place that we read in the New Testament.
The clarity that it brings regarding Christ's saving work as being one of perfect substitutionary sacrifice is clear from the text in Isaiah 53.
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 52:13–53:12
Well, let's read the text. We're actually going to read if we Back up a little bit to Isaiah 52, 13. We'll start reading there to the end of Isaiah 53. Isaiah 52, verse 13.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so his appearance was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at him. For what had not been told them, they shall see. And what they had not heard, they shall consider. Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him.
And by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment.
And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied.
By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. And he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors." Amen.
Opening Prayer
Well, let's again open in prayer. Our God, we thank you for this text of Scripture that we read. We bless your name, Lord God, for this portion of Scripture that discloses with glorious clarity the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the importance and the meaning and the value and the seriousness of that death, what it means, its perfection, and what it means for Christ's people. We thank you for this text.
We pray that you would help us to avail of what it reveals to us, that we would glory in its truths, that we would rejoice in the Christ that it presents to us, and Lord God, that we would go from this place by virtue of these truths, seeking to live in a manner worthy of the gospel by which we were called. Be with us now as we engage in preaching. Again, what we do, we do pray that it is done unto the praise of your name and unto the praise of your glorious grace. And it's in Christ's name that we do pray.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, again, a glorious passage of Old Testament scripture, prophetic in its nature, proclaiming the bruised and battered and crucified Jesus hundreds of years prior to that glorious central to Christianity event. It's a wonderful passage of Holy Scripture. We see if you were to grab a parallel text, or not a parallel text, but a text in the New Testament that brings these truths out and cites them. John 18 and 19, the account of the crucifixion there.
The author, John, going to many of the places in this scripture and bringing out the fulfillment of them. We see also in Acts chapter 8, remember the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian eunuch is traveling along And Philip runs after him, chases him down, and asks him what he is reading. He's reading this particular passage of Holy Scripture, Isaiah 53.
And from that text, Philip preaches Jesus to the Ethiopian unit. We get to 1 Peter, other texts to be sure, but we get to 1 Peter chapter 2. And the Apostle Peter there cites, almost states verbatim, Isaiah 53 in arguing for the the perfection of the saving work of Jesus Christ. Actually, in the context, he's exhorting masters and slaves.
And he uses the substitutionary atonement of Jesus as a reason to exhort the masters and the slaves in that particular context, the slaves specifically. But the New Testament brings to bear the proper interpretation of Isaiah 53 that the prophet here is speaking concerning the sacrificial substitutionary work. of our perfect Jesus. So we're going to, from this text tonight, look at five things briefly as we look forward to observing the Lord's Supper. Those five things are Christ's humility, His substitution, His resolve, His perfection, and His triumphant reward.
Just briefly by way of introduction. See, the Lord's Supper gives us an occasion to rehearse the ABCs of Christianity, if you will, if we can use that terminology. Spurgeon did, so I'll sit on his shoulders and say what he said. You see, not that we don't.
I believe here at Free Grace Baptist Church, humbly, that from the pulpit every Sunday you hear of Jesus. You hear of the centrality of Christ. You hear of the glorious riches and the excellencies of Jesus in his revealed gospel and the necessity of belief in him for everlasting life. There is something to the Lord's Supper that is special.
Christ commanded, do this in remembrance of me. So you see, we come to the Lord's table and it is a special and peculiar way by which we return to those beginning points of Christianity and glory in the cross. This virgin said this. with regards to the cross of Christ, babes in Christ and men in Christ here feed upon common food. Come ye aged saints, be children again, and you that have long known your Lord, take up your first spelling book and go over your ABCs again by learning that God so loved the world that he gave his son to die that man might live through him.
I do not call you to an elementary lesson because you have forgotten your letters, but because it is a good thing to refresh the memory and a blessed thing to feel young again. Therefore, do I call you back to the cross and to him who bled there on. Blessed exercises, we observe the Lord's Supper to return to those spelling books of our profession, those ABCs of Christianity, and to rehearse the glorious cross. of Jesus Christ.
Christ's Humility
So again, first, His humility. Christ's humility. We read this clearly in the text. And first, under His humility,
His Messianic Task
His messianic task. Notice verses 1 and 2. Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord being revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. In the humility of Jesus Christ, We, with regards to the humility of Jesus Christ, we see it in the fact that in his incarnation, he comes from small beginnings, from beginnings that we would not in our human minds attach to a messianic mission, would we? In fact, the Jews didn't do that, did they? Remember, Spurgeon said the Jews could not endure a crucified Messiah.
But even before that, we read at the outset of the Gospel of John, Jesus, He, came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. We see Jesus in the account of the Bible, and in our human minds, we can't necessarily understand that a Messiah, God manifested in the flesh, would again be that babe in a feed trough, born not in an inn, born not in a home, but born where livestock feed and are tended to. That he would grow up and he would be simply dwelling with a carpenter and with a woman who was charged with marital infidelity. That he would simply, when he engages in his messianic mission, that unlike the foxes who have holes and unlike the birds of the air who have their nests, he didn't have anywhere to lay his head.
The Lord Jesus Christ comes and he grows up before God as a tender plant, not a mighty rooted tree and as a root out of dry ground, not a plant that is in a garden of splendor and much nourishment, but rather a root out of dry ground. The beginnings of Christ in his incarnation and in his many messianic investiture, they are small beginnings. They are beginnings that we would not in our human minds attach. to the Messiah of God. So in His humility, His messianic task is seen highlighting that humility and that condescension from heaven to earth, from glory to ignominy.
Ignominy. That's our Savior. He comes from that place of splendor, the praises of the courts of heaven, and He comes into this lower world born of a woman born under the law. To help us understand the humility of Jesus, let's go to John Calvin.
He writes this on the text. I cited a portion of this this morning, but it's brilliant. Not only does this help us understand a bit of Christ's humility, what it is, though it's just a short quote, but it also helps us to understand what our humility looks like in light of Christ. This is John Calvin commenting on Philippians 2 6 in as much as he was in the form of God.
This is not a comparison between things similar, but in the way of greater and less. Christ's humility consisted in his abasing himself from the highest pinnacle of glory to the lowest ignominy. Our humility consists in refraining from exalting ourselves by a false estimation. You see what he's saying?
We have no right to claim, oh, we're humble. Or, you know, we're going to exercise humility. We're in a place or a posture or a position of prominence. But you know what?
We're going to condescend and bring ourselves low because we're wholly noble and pious. No, he goes on to say he gave up Christ, he gave up his right All that is required of us is that we do not assume to ourselves more than we ought. Hence, he sets out with this, that inasmuch as he was in the form of God, he reckoned it not an unlawful thing for him to show himself in that form, yet he emptied himself, or he came in the incarnation in the form of a bondservant. Since then, the Son of God descended from so great a height, how unreasonable that we who are nothing should be lifted up with pride.
You see what Calvin is highlighting there. He departs the glory of heaven, the praise of angels, the splendor of the bliss of paradise to come into our lower madness of a wicked world in order to carry out his messianic task. Again, it's not the type of deliverer our human minds conceive. That's why we see here he is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, which brings us to our second point.
Under his humility, we see it in
Voluntary Endurance of Rejection
Christ's voluntary enduring of his people's rejection. Remember, Christ voluntarily comes to in the incarnation to give his life for guilty sinners and to rise again the third day. He voluntary endures his people's rejection. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
We hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Again, we read at the outset of Christ's earthly ministry. He came to his own and his own did not receive him.
He came to his own creation, his brethren according to his humanity, the people of messianic expectation. First off, the people who rejected him and reviled him and hated him and spit upon him and bruised on him or bruised him with their hands were the making of his own hands. He as creator fashioned these who were spitting on him. He, as Creator, fashioned those who were bruising Him with their hands.
Those who were shooting out the lip, according to Psalm 22, were those whom Christ made in graciousness and in great power. Those who were denying Him, who were calling out, crucify Him, crucify Him, were those that He gave breath to. And that He was, at the very time of their rejection, that He was lifting them and upholding them by the word of his power. You see, Jesus Christ in his incarnation did not divest himself of his deity and his power and his glory.
It was hidden in human form, but he didn't empty his deity and set it aside and engage in a solely human exercise of a messianic task. He is always fully God, and he became fully man for our sakes and for his salvific endeavor. And at the time of those blasphemers calling for Barabbas and saying, crucify this Christ, Jesus was giving them the breath to breathe those breaths and those cries, and he was upholding them by the word of his power. He voluntarily endures his people's rejection.
They were his brethren according to his humanity. He comes to his own countrymen, if you will allow that language, and they reject him. He came to his own, John says, and his own did not receive him. Not only that, but they were the people of messianic expectation.
They were that body politic who were announced to of the coming. It didn't sound like proper language. They were announced. It was announced to them that the Savior would come, that Jesus would come.
From the outset of creation at the fall, the announcement is given that a coming redeemer that there is a coming Redeemer, Genesis 3.15. Throughout the progression of Old Covenant religion, in our Old Testaments, we have that revelation, building upon revelation, that there will come, in the fullness of the times, a Savior, born of a woman, born under the law, who will redeem those under the law. He comes and His own people reject Him in wickedness and in ignorance and in scriptural neglect. Jesus, an aspect of his humility, is the voluntary enduring of his people's rejection.
And just on that, also in verse seven, we're sort of progressing through the text here, but in verse seven, this is interesting. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. You see, again, he's standing before those that he fashioned in creative power, that he sustains in his sovereignty. He grants them all that they have by virtue of him being God manifested in the flesh.
They are opposing him and afflicting him. Yet Jesus doesn't open his mouth. You see, not only would we open our mouths if we were oppressed and afflicted, being guilty of transgressions, But certainly being innocent, we would shoot out the lip and answer and revile in return. But Jesus Christ, the maker of those, the sustainer of those who were oppressing and afflicting, does not open his mouth.
And we'll get to that at the third point.
Christ's Substitution
But secondly, moving on and we have his humility. Secondly, we have his substitution. His substitution. Oh, big words, how we loathe them.
No, as Christians, we shouldn't loathe big words. Oh, why do we have to have all of these theological words and all of these long seven-syllable words? Glorious theological words. Proven words from our brothers from the advent of Christianity that highlight and summarize the perfection of Jesus and His glorious work.
Never reject big words, because if you were to read the original Greek, there's words bigger than a lot of the English words that we use. Paul and the apostles, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, used big words in order to communicate the riches and the excellencies of our precious Jesus. His substitution. What does substitution mean?
Acting, functioning or standing in the room or stead or place of another. A substitute. We would also use the language here of his vicarious work, working or acting in the stead or in the place of another. Notice the text.
And I hope you inside sing the glories and the riches of Jesus as we read this. Verse three, picking up there. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. Brethren, that's one of those passages, not that there are any where we do this, but that's one of those passages where when we're reading our Bibles, and however it wholesomely manifests itself, we are to inwardly or outwardly bow our faces before the Triune God of Holy Scripture in glorious recognition of His condescending and merciful saving work.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed.
Glorious language. This is the heart of the gospel that Christ comes and he bears the penal sanctions. That is the penalty that was due for his people. That penalty we don't bear, he does.
The innocent and the precious and the perfect one who has no guile, no deceit, no ethical blemishes whatsoever comes in the fullness of the times in the believers stead and bears all of those penalties that were due us for our wickedness, for our transgressions, for our grievous sins against the thrice holy God of Holy Scripture. That is the stuff of the seraphim and the cherubim, who aren't even the recipients of his redemptive work, singing his praises. When the angels praise God more than we do for his saving work, I think there might be a problem. Now, yes, the angels are the elect angels, you know, perfect in their spiritual existence and in their roles as God's ministers sent to minister to those who will inherit salvation.
But they are not the recipients of Christ's peculiar saving and redeeming work. Believers are. Christians are. So we come to this passage and we uncross our legs.
We put down our tea. We turn off the fan. And we worship the God of Holy Scripture because this is not the stuff of casual observation. This is the stuff of a solemn yet glorious rejoicing in the saving work of Jesus Christ, because this is the heart, the sum, the substance of gospel truth.
He has borne our griefs. He has carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement for our peace was upon him. The fact of His substitutionary work is clear from the Scriptures. And hopefully you appreciate this language of He and Our. This transaction that is going on.
He was wounded for our transgressions. Never step over or dance past the language here that is small, but glorious. Jesus was wounded for Our transgressions, the New Testament authors pick up this language of substitution from Isaiah 53 and from the clarity of the biblical witness regarding Christ's work. And they write glorious passages of their own, highlighting that work.
First Corinthians, second Corinthians five, second Corinthians five. No doubt this text is familiar to you. Let's increase that familiarity by turning there and reading it. 2 Corinthians 5, beginning at verse 20, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Glorious substitution. That language of for us, the simple phrase Christ died for us. I think sometimes we minimize the power and the glory of that three letter word for or that five letter phrase for us. For isn't just that it is a divine gift.
Christ died for us, but it carries the weight and the theological force of Christ died in our stead. Christ died in our room, in our place, for us. Glorious, glorious. Galatians 3.13 Galatians 3.13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. These are those texts that we ought to have written figuratively on our bodies like the Jews and attached to our hands and our ringlets and wherever we're supposed to attach them. Figuratively, these are the texts of glorious remembrance. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, having become a curse instead of us, having become a curse in our stead, in our place.
Glorious substitution. One more. Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2, rehearsing the language of Isaiah 53. Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2.
When you get there, you can navigate to verse 23. Who, when he was reviled, speaking of Jesus, did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." It is explicit there.
Peter citing Isaiah 53, "...who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree." Isn't that glorious language? Why doesn't that just cause us to sing and to dance? To engage inwardly in a reverential awe. To fall on our faces inwardly or outwardly worshipping the God of Holy Scripture.
He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. One who is perfect. One who hadn't sinned. One who is innocent.
One who has no guile and deceit. One who is ethically perfect. God Himself, departing from the blessed state, the worship of angels, to bear in His own body our sins on that tree. Glorious substitution.
It was Christ's substitutionary work was planned. This is the six Ps, if you will, of Christ's saving work. Christ's substitutionary work.
The Six Ps of Substitution
It was planned. It was promised. It was prophesied. It was performed.
It was published and it was applied. I know applied starts with an A. But it's like the four R's, reading, writing, and arithmetic. There's only one R in there, right?
The RWA, the three R's, reading, writing, I get what they're doing. The six Ps of Christ's substitutionary work. It was planned. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
He indeed, Peter says, was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but manifested in these last days for us. It was planned. It was promised. Genesis 315 and onward.
Revelation is Christward in trajectory, pointing forward to that promised Redeemer. It was prophesied. Isaiah 53, among many other texts. There is coming, and however it's worded, a Savior who will be Christ the Lord.
It is performed. We get to the narrative accounts, the Gospels, and we see the narrative of Christ coming, marching with diligence and with resolve to the cross to perform that which was planned, promised, and prophesied. We see it published. Jesus himself prior and his sense apostles after publish.
That is, they proclaim and they disclose the glorious performed work of Jesus, his saving perfection. And it is applied. The Holy Spirit comes. The Holy Spirit comes and applies the rich benefits of Christ's perfect saving work to all who believe, to all His people.
Beautiful substitution. The result of His substitutionary work. Notice, as we go back to Isaiah 53, the result of His substitutionary work is verse 5, C and D. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. and by his strikes we are healed.
Surely this came out in what we just covered, but the purpose of his substitutionary work is so that we might have peace with God and so that we might get that glorious spiritual healing that is the forgiveness of sins and the cancelling of the debt and condemnation of sin against us. by Christ's substitutionary work, we have peace with God. Those glorious texts of the Scripture, in announcing the coming of Jesus Christ, He will be what? Isaiah says, the Prince of Peace. Micah says that this One who is from old, from everlasting, who will come as the eternal King, He is peace.
The announcement of the angels in the birth narrative, the infancy narratives, glory to God in the highest, peace. on earth and goodwill toward men. And, of course, that exclamation by Paul in Ephesians 2.14, for he himself is our peace. Jesus Christ, by his substitutionary work, brings peace to his people.
Christ's Resolve
Thirdly, his resolve. From Isaiah 53, his resolve. What do we mean by that? We mean his determination to complete the task.
His determination to complete the task. Notice at verse 7, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. Jesus Christ was wholly abandoned to the work that His Father set before Him, and He was going to complete it to its perfect fulfillment and fruition.
Turn to Luke nine with me. Luke chapter nine. A New Testament text that speaks to the resolve of Christ, that he was dedicated to, determined to complete the task that he was sent to carry out, namely the perfect salvation of his people to the praise of God. Verse 51 of Luke chapter 9, Now it came to pass, when the time had come for him to be received up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.
You see, when we know that adversity is coming, when we know that hardship is coming, rarely do we ever lean into it with determination and with resolution and with resolve and embrace it. with, you know, with a desire to be wholly abandoned unto the receipt of affliction and trial and punishment. We don't do that. Usually we run and hide. We figuratively, maybe literally curl up and cry and suck our thumbs because we fear affliction.
We fear oppression. We fear pain, tribulation, trial, travail of soul rubs against us. Jesus Christ, the perfect redeeming King, comes into this lower world. He knows the task set before him.
I must be delivered up by wicked hands, be crucified and raised again the third day. One man has said this with regards to his resolve. He knew where this road was going, and he leaned into it. And he leaned into it.
Isn't that wonderful? When I played rugby, the coaches would instruct us, when we're running down the sideline to stay in bounds, we either grip the ball with the right hand and we push with the left and lean into the opposing tacklers, or we drive through with their shoulder to knock them over. You see, we're instructed in oncoming adversity for the victory of scoring for our team, we're to lean into that coming oppression and that coming angry opponent. Jesus Christ leans into coming oppression and affliction because He was determined to complete the messianic task to save His people, to die for His sheep, and to redeem them perfectly unto the praise of His Father.
It's a glorious resolve of Jesus Christ. A couple of things. Even when opposed and afflicted, Jesus remained steadfast. You see, He wasn't just steadfast like perhaps we might be in carrying out a task like our jobs.
There's no necessarily no trial or affliction or opposition or anything. We just diligently complete a task. Christ in the midst of opposition and affliction daily, rejection from his own people, his life being sought after by the religious authorities, so much weight of opposition and hatred coming upon Jesus, nevertheless, Nevertheless, when oppressed and afflicted, Jesus remains steadfast. And also, even though he, by the smallest exercise of his power, could have escaped from certain death, nevertheless, he's determined to complete the task.
Matthew 26. Turn there with me. Matthew 26. When you get there, verse 52.
We'll back up actually to verse 50. But Jesus said to him, Friend, why have you come? Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took him. And suddenly one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
But Jesus said to him, Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He will provide me with more than twelve legions of angels, How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen thus? Isn't that wonderful? You see, Jesus is in control of the situation.
He's not the unwitting recipient of the oppression and the affliction, unable to escape and unable to affect release somehow. Powerless. Jesus is in control of this. Do you not think? that I cannot pray to my Father, and He will provide me with not just twelve legions of angels, but more than twelve legions of angels?
But you see, if that were to happen, Jesus said, how then could the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen thus? That what must happen? That I must be delivered up by wicked hands, crucified, and raised again the third day. Jesus was determined to complete His messianic task.
He had a perfect resolve. And we as Christians are the blessed beneficiaries of Christ's determination to complete the task that his father set before him.
Christ's Perfection
Fourthly, his perfection. As we move back to Isaiah 53, our text, his perfection. We've noted his humility, his substitution, his resolve. Now his perfection.
First off, we must notice his ethical perfection. Verse nine. And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." This makes his substitutionary work all the more glorious, doesn't it? He was innocent of all crimes.
There was no fault in the Savior, no blemish of imperfection. Nothing lacking in Jesus Christ, the blessed Redeemer, the perfect one. Yet he's delivered up in the room and in the stead and of the place and in the place of the wicked ones, sinners. He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Our Savior had ethical perfection. You can turn to Hebrews 4 to see something of the Pauline witness in the book of Hebrews to this reality. Hebrews 4, beginning at verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain and find grace to help in time of need.
Types and Antitypes: Adam and Israel
Never miss the account of Adam, And the account of covenant Israel without seeing their typological nature. What do I mean by that? They served as types of Jesus Christ. They foreshadowed in a negative sense what Christ would perform in a perfect sense.
What do I mean by that? Adam was a covenant was made with Adam. He failed. God blessed him in a garden.
He placed him in a paradise and said, observe these commands. If you do, blessing. If you don't, cursing. I'm paraphrasing, but that's what God says.
He makes a covenant with Adam. If he breaches the covenant, then cursings. If he upholds that covenant arrangement, blessings. We know what happens.
He fails. He's exiled from the garden and the curse comes upon him and all his progeny. We get to the narrative concerning Israel. What do we see?
We see a covenant made with Moses and with the nation of Israel. Cursings, if you do not obey my commandments. Blessings, if you do obey. Now, to qualify, not salvific blessings.
I'm not saying that if Israel obeyed God, they would receive eternal life. I'm talking about physical blessings of that temporary covenant. If you do, The Decalogue. If you obey it, if you keep My covenant, I will bless you richly.
You can read Deuteronomy 28 later to see this. If you violate My covenant, then cursings will come upon you. Israel fails. We know that from the Bible.
Israel fails. Jesus comes, though, as the second, the last Adam. Jesus comes as the true and perfect Son of God. Israel, His chosen one.
And He perfectly completes that performing of God's obligations. He comes and he passes the probation. And by virtue of his perfect work, he brings all those covenantally attached in saving faith into the bliss of paradise. Paradise restored by Jesus Christ.
Adam fails. Israel fails. Christ performs perfectly and brings his people to perfection on behalf of his saving work. His ethical perfection and of course his redemptive perfection.
Redemptive Perfection and Definite Atonement
His redemptive perfection. His is not an atonement of maybe. It is not an atonement of perhaps. It is an atonement of yes, verily, and certainty.
He perfectly secures the salvation of a multitude that no man can number. Verse 11, he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. The very fact that Jesus Christ is the bearer of his people's iniquities, that is the reason for the perfect salvation of those for whom he bears iniquities.
Jesus Christ, my servant, the text says, shall justify many. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Jesus Christ, upon the cross of Calvary, did not establish a redemptive plan that needs to be activated by the free will of mankind. Jesus did all that he can do, and now it's up to you.
Horror of horrors. Jesus perfectly secures the salvation of a multitude that no man can number. There are not sinners in hell waving their fists in anger at God who are secured by or who Christ's blood secured somehow or was efficacious for. That means the Savior failed, that Jesus Christ is a failure, that it was his will to do the will of his father. that of all that his father gave him, he should lose none.
But you see, he failed. There's multitudes in hell. No, Jesus Christ died so as to perfectly secure the salvation of a multitude that no man can number. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." Spurgeon said, if the Arminian conception of atonement is true, the cross quakes, the blood falls powerless to the ground, And redemption is a matter of perhaps.
Jesus died perfectly to secure with majestic perfection, the salvation of all whom the father gave to him.
Christ's Triumphant Reward
And lastly, his triumphant reward, his triumphant reward, verse 12. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death." Isn't that wonderful? God rewards the work of the second, the blessed Trinity.
Therefore, I will divide him, a portion with the strong. A good parallel passage that summarizes all of the theology of Isaiah 53 in the New Testament is Philippians 2, 6-11. Philippians 2, 6-11. If you want to see a good theological, creedal summary of Isaiah 53, you find it there.
In Philippians 2, 6-11, the Apostle Paul writes this, speaking of Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Now, notice his triumphant reward. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We have the incarnation.
He was in the form of God, did not consider it, though, robbery to be equal with God, or he did not consider equality with God something to be held on to, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There was no beauty in him that we would desire him. He was despised and rejected because the glorious The glorious second of the triune God came and made himself of no reputation.
He was obedient to the Lord God, even to the point of death. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. All of that substitutionary language in Isaiah 53. And by virtue of that work, he gets his triumphant reward.
As Isaiah 53 says, therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great. But it doesn't stop there. and he shall divide the spoil with the strong." What does that mean? That means that Christ shares the spoils of his victory with his people. You see, the powerful victor doesn't descend from glory to lower ignominy, triumphantly reign victorious in his saving work, and then depart, and that's it.
He sends his Holy Spirit, the promised one, another helper, who comes and applies the benefits of that saving work salvificly to his people. He is the victor and he shares the spoils with his people. The winnings, the victorious rewards of his saving work, he shares with his people. Not only do we see that, brethren, in the eternal state to come, That great eschatological reality that for multitudinous years, more than that, for eternity, we will sing the praises of Jesus Christ and of our triune God.
But we can realize that here in this lower world, because aren't we now currently the possessors of eternal life? We have been saved, the Bible says. Yes, there is that you will be saved with regards to glorification, the certainty of our entering into Emmanuel's land. But there is the now present possession of all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ.
We get to engage in the Lord's Supper right now, that is a temporal spoil that Christ won for us. We get to observe and celebrate this ordinance of remembrance where we look back as retrospective Christians to his body broken for us and his blood shed for us. We have many things that we could meditate upon with regards to the spoils of victory. For us, Calvin said, Christ subdued death, the world and the devil.
So as we engage in this supper now, let us rejoice in Christ Jesus, our perfect humble one, our perfect substitute, that perfect Jesus of determination to complete his task he had resolved, that perfect Jesus of ethical perfection, redemptive perfection, and that one who by his work secured that triumphant reward not only for himself, but for his people. Let's rejoice in that Jesus. And if you don't believe in him, why not? What is greater than our Lord Jesus Christ?
What is more splendid than the Savior of saviors, the King of kings and the Lord of lords? You stand under, you sit under the wrath of almighty God, his wholesome severity and condemnation for having transgressed his law. But mercy of mercies is found in Jesus who came into this world to save sinners. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for this passage of Scripture, Lord, for what it discloses concerning him. We thank you for his perfections, for his humility, for that perfect substitutionary work, for all of the riches and the excellencies disclosed to us, revealed to us in your Scriptures.
Might we daily sing his praises. Might we now observe with great glory this ordinance given to us of remembrance, that we would remember the saving work of Jesus as we partake of this bread and of this wine. Help us, Lord God, to glory in, to properly remember, to cast off the remembrance and the contemplations of wicked things or earthly things and to be now wholly abandoned unto the remembrance of Jesus Christ broken for us and his blood shed for us. We pray in his precious name.